MUMBAI (TIP): A day after Salman Khan’s defence team questioned how the actor’s medical examination and blood extraction was done in five minutes, defence counsel Shrikant Shivade on Thursday alleged that the examination of the Toyota Land Cruiser Lexus was done in flat 20 minutes.

He was questioning yet another bit of crucial evidence against the actor. “Is this possible? We have superfast experts now…medical and blood extraction done in five minutes…vehicle is examined in 20 minutes…surpirsing, amazing,” Shivade told additional sessions judge D W Deshpande of the Mumbai sessions court, who is conducting the retrial of the case.

He said that a crucial witness, the official of the Regional Transport Office (RTO), has been changing statements over the time. “Once he said that he examined the vehicle on September 28, 2002 (Saturday) and then he says he did it on September 29, 2002 (Sunday)….he is a liar….he takes recourse of lies whenever it suits him…he will not hesitate to say that the Sun sets in the east,” Shivade said.

He said that he had examined the car in 20 minutes. “If we see, we will find, it takes 5 to 7 minutes to check the steering, 2 to 4 minutes to check the brakes, one-and-a-half minutes to check the tyres…4 to 5 minutes to check the gear box, 10 minutes to check what is mentioned in column 4, 5 and 6, then 3 to 4 minutes to check what is mentioned in column 7, 1 to 2 minutes to check the spring…this itself amounts to more than 30 minutes and in 20 minutes this witness checks the car and also conducts a test drive of half-a-km during the morning busy peak hours,” he pointed out.

“The attitude of this man towards truth is shocking….no remorse, whether he is lying or not,” he said , pointing out that when the officer arrived to check the car, he (R S Keskar) was not carrying the required performa to inspect the vehicle.

“…instead, he points out that another official Imtiyaz helped him with technical details,” the defence counsel said, noting that this was the first imported car that he examined and perhaps the last. “He said that during his training he had examined a Tata Indica…and now he examines a Land Cruiser…it is like asking a student of Class II to appear for B.Sc,” he said.

Shivade said that a tyre burst has caused the Land Cruiser Lexus to veer off the road. “Once the witness says, tyres were deflated, then he says air pressure was low…which is correct?Our version is correct…it was a tyre burst,” he said, pointing out that according to a survey, 35 per cent of the accidents are caused because of tyre bursts.

Shivade also questioned the delay in completing the formalities of lodging of the FIR. “The RTO official said that till Sunday, he was not shown the FIR and was told that it was being prepared….but why this delay?” he asked.